The Southern Belle

As you all may know already, my husband Tomais is an avid collector of SecondLife machinery and vehicles of all and any kind. I wouldn't go so far as to call it an addiction - yet, but...

Happy Tomais

Anyway! Two and a half years ago we visited the wharves of the Bandit store and saw that Analyse Dean was building a ginormous riverboat. Tomais at once said "I want it!" and I, in a moment of codependency and weakness, told him I would get it for him as a present.

Nice ass!

When I checked in with the creator Anneliese for information on when the boat would be released, she said it might happen after that summer. Well that was two years ago, and Tomais has been taking regular trips to the wharf to check on how things were proceeding.

For a long time nothing happened, but then finally, about a week ago, Tomais told me that the boat was now released and that he was going to buy it. I reminded him of my promise and told him i would reimburse him when I got inworld, because he told me he simply couldn't wait for me to get there to buy it. (Addict much, eh?)

The beauty herself

Tomais has been happy as a ten y.o. with his new toy since he got hit. Learning how to work it and re-texturing it to suit his purposes.

I am the proud portmaster of the boats home port

I have enjoyed a couple of trips on The Southern Belle also, despite the fact that the captain makes me work my way over the Blake Sea (there is no Mississippi river in SecondLife), mostly in unsuitable gear.

My preferred manner of travelling

My actual manner of travelling

Change

To change, i.e. to do things differently or to become different by changing personal traits, is difficult for me. I am very much a creature of habits. Although I may like change as a concept, I do not like sudden and unexpected changes that I do not feel I can control. 

When it comes to changing my ways of doing things or my ways of thinking I procrastinate a lot and drag the process out. I first need to feel, then think and then to re-feel and re-think before I go ahead and start doing it by trying things out. It's a slow and arduous ordeal, even when I am aware of the need and see the benefits of changing. This cautious approach to change is of course the fundamental reason for my political affinity for reform rather than revolution. 

Even if I have this guarded enthusiasm for change I mostly adapt with relative ease to new situations in my surroundings - if they do not crave personal change. Surprisingly, I have no problems with unthinkingly establishing new bad habits, the problem is rather to break these when I realize they are destructive. My insight of this character flaw in my personality at an early age has made me  relatively cautious in my relationships with alcohol and drugs. 

The drugs I do abuse on a daily basis are caffeine - well, I am Swedish after all - and nicotine. Both these addictions have become excessive over the past three years since I was diagnosed with depression, I drink many litres of coffee and have increased my smoking from 20 to 40 (sometimes 50) cigarettes per day.   My weight has also increased with 10 kilograms during the same period due to the fact that I completely stopped exercising. From being a moderately fit man I have become a couch potato.

I need to change my life, my choices and my habits.

My Crazy Summer Addiction

I don´t watch TV that much and I take great care to avoid reality shows, but this summer I got stuck on a stupid reality show about these crazy and wealthy women in Beverly Hills.

Kyle Richards, Adrienne Maloof, Lisa Vanderpump , Taylor Armstrong , Camille Donatacci and Kim Richards 

The five women in "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" on their own create more drama among themselves and in their social circles than the whole of Swedish SecondLife. Of course part of it is probably due to imaginative editing by the director and the production team, but still...

I have heard that the first step to being cured of an addiction is to admit you have one. Once I start working again on Monday I will not have the opportunity to watch daytime television again so the rest should work itself out smoothly. Keep your fingers crossed.